The Federal Trade Commission, which oversees the federal Do Not Call list, has seen a nearly 50% increase in complaints about Do Not Call violations and robocalls since 2015.

In 2015, the agency received 3.5 million complaints, and in 2016 took 5.3 million complaints, according to data obtained by Call 6 Investigates.

Hoosiers like Brian Danser say blocking the numbers doesn't even work because scammers can just call back from a different phone number.

“It’s nothing but a headache,” said Danser.

Hoosiers say Do Not Call is failing miserably at stopping unwanted phone calls, and the number of calls is just getting worse.

Call 6 Investigates did some checking and found both the Indiana and federal Do Not Call lists date back to the early 2000s before iPhones were invented and many people were still using landlines exclusively.

“The Do Not Call list works for the vast majority of companies who are willing to abide by the law,” said Hill. “The reason you’re getting calls is because you have a certain number of callers if you will who are freely willing to violate the standards.”

Hill said cheap technology makes it easier than ever for criminals to spoof numbers and spam you, and thousands of others.

But he says the Do Not Call system does work, just not as well as you'd like it to.

“How many calls are you NOT getting?” said Hill. “It's difficult to say how many calls you would get if you hadn't signed up for the do not call list."

“We go after the folks making the calls, but for every action we bring and every operation we shut down, unfortunately, there are 5 more operations behind that sending out unwanted calls," said Janice Kopec, Do Not Call program manager at the Federal Trade Commission. “Phone scammers unfortunately always seem to have a new trick.”

Kopec said their agency is doing plenty to stop Do Not Call violators.

“The FTC has brought 130 actions against hundreds of individuals and companies for violating the Do Not Call including 45 specific law enforcement actions against companies that have spammed consumers with unwanted robocalls,” said Kopec.

The FTC has fined telemarketers more than a billion dollars.

Kopec says people should still sign up for the Do Not Call list.

“The Do not Call list does work, and it works really well to prevent legitimate telemarketers from calling you,” said Kopec. “I know it’s hard to believe but if you weren’t registered for the Do Not Call list, you would actually be getting more phone calls that you are right now.”

Despite efforts from state and federal government, many people still blame the government for not doing enough to stop unwanted calls.

However, groups like the Consumers Union told Call 6 Investigates it’s actually your phone company who has the power to stop robocalls.

“I think the phone companies are in the best position to provide tools to consumers to protect them from robocalls,” said Maureen Mahoney, a spokesperson for the Consumers Union, the policy arm of Consumer Reports.

“They have the engineers, they have the technology, and they know how their systems work."

“The industry needs to keep working on better blocking solutions available for their subscribers,” said Kopec. "They need to keep looking at their networks to make sure they’re secure and able to identify mass robocall events and take steps to stop them. They need to listen to their subscribers and offer better options to ward off these calls.”

AT&T is committed to finding tools and solutions to abate the proliferation of illegal and unwanted robocalls and to helping consumers have more control over the calls they wish to receive.

Last year, AT&T, along with a group of more than 30 companies, formed a Robocall Strike Force and met biweekly between August and October to develop solutions to address unwanted and illegal robocalling.

The Robocall Strike Force consolidated its findings and issued both short and long-term goals in a report. As outlined in the report, the work of the group continues within industry associations, such as USTelecom, CTIA, and standards-setting body ATIS.

In December, AT&T released a free service called “AT&T Call Protect,” which blocks fraudulent and unwanted calls at the network level before they reach our customers' phones.

Currently, AT&T is working with vendors to ensure we are ready for carrier interoperability verification by the 4th quarter of 2017, which will provide another layer to identify and mitigate robocalls.

We recognize that robocalls are a problem and we are working to find solutions for our customers.

Statement from Verizon

As you are no doubt aware, Verizon participated in four workgroups (co-chairing one of them) which brought carriers together to work through ways we can address this problem, including how we can work more effectively with law enforcement to address the root cause. Verizon is making progress on each of the areas outlined in the Strike Force’s Final Report, including creating and testing new tools that further empower our customers to address unwanted robocalls.

In fact, Verizon is currently trialing a new service for incoming calls that will help our customers identify robocallers and spam callers. It’s currently on a limited number of Android devices and we’ll make it available on additional ones this year.

In addition, Verizon has been a leader in working with members of the communications ecosystem to identify “bad actors” who continue to make millions of illegal robocalls. We also were a founding member of the Trusted Carrier Framework established by the U.S. Telecom Association’s Robocall Working Group, which has been working with like-minded carriers to address numerous mass calling events.

As you can see, Verizon is doing its part to help address this robocall issue. While much progress has been made, there’s still substantial work to be done. We look forward to working with other carriers and the government to achieve meaningful advances to combat robocalls.

Statement from Frontier

Frontier offers tools to combat robocalls, such as Anonymous Call Rejection, Selective Call Block, and NoMo Robo. Developing an effective approach to both copper and fiber-based networks is a technology challenge that requires a total industry effort to properly address. Fortunately, the industry is hard at work to develop, and ultimately implement, better robocall blocking technologies through standards development. Frontier is proud of its efforts with the Robocall Strike Force and we will continue to aggressively fight to defeat robocalls.

Statement from the Federal Communications Commission

I think it’s important to remember that the Do Not Call registry (primarily administered by the FTC, though we’re involved) only relates to telemarketing calls – so it does not apply to non-marketing robocalls. Also, it does not block calls but rather informs callers which numbers not to call. For callers that perhaps are trying to scam or defraud people, they too often ignore this list. From there, we rely on consumer complaints to inform investigations and enforcement actions. In addition, we are working to empower consumers to have access to services that will actively block unwanted calls. We are also working with phone companies to help them block spoofed calls that are clearly not legitimate (such as robocalls pretending to be from an area code that doesn’t exist). The industry-led Robocall Strike Force has been important in items like this.

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